“Educated at the feet of Gamaliel”
I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I am just as zealous for God as any of you here today. (Acts 22:3 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A polite way of naming a teacher.
The cultural key
'At the feet of' is the disciple's posture made into a credential (the same idiom that marks Mary of Bethany as a disciple, Luke 10:39): students literally sat on the floor before a seated master. The name is the credential's weight: Gamaliel the elder, grandson and heir of Hillel, so revered the Mishnah says that when he died 'the glory of the Torah ceased.' Paul is telling a hostile Jerusalem crowd, in Aramaic, that his pedigree runs through their most honored living chain of tradition, which is also the quiet explanation of why his letters argue like a trained rabbi.
Recovered meaning
The apostle to the Gentiles was formed on the floor of Jerusalem's best school. His break with his past was never ignorance of it; he critiques the system as its honors graduate.